-- Gates says aid getting to Haitians
-- Searchers hope for more survivor miracles
The US Geological Survey said Wednesday's tremor was centered 35 miles (60 km) west-south-west of Port-au-Prince. Desperate and hungry residents of Port-au-Prince have been sleeping outdoors since the January 12 earthquake because their homes were destroyed, or from fear of aftershocks.
Fears of violence and looting have eased in Haiti as US troops provide security for water and food aid deliveries, and thousands of displaced Haitians have heeded the government's advice to seek shelter outside Port-au-Prince. Medical care, handling of corpses, shelter, water, food and sanitation remain the priorities for a international relief operation, UN relief officials said.
US Black Hawk helicopters swooped down on the grounds of Haiti's wrecked presidential palace on Tuesday, deploying troops and supplies and immediately attracting crowds of survivors who clamoured for handouts of food. "Supplies are beginning to get out to the people," US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said during a visit to India. Gates said he hoped the presence of US troops would prevent violence.
"There is a concern that if you are unable to get significant supplies out that in their desperation people will turn to crime and violence," he said. "We have not seen much of that yet happily, and my hope is that as we get these trucks out on the roads with supplies and people see patrols - that will prevent any significant violence from taking place."
While military escorts are needed to deliver relief, the United Nations said security problems were mainly in areas considered "high risk" before the disaster. Some 4,000 criminals escaped from prisons damaged by the earthquake. "The overall security situation in Port-au-Prince remains stable, with limited, localised violence and looting occurring," the UN Office for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
Around 12,000 US military personnel are on the ground in Haiti, on ships offshore or en route, including the USNS Comfort hospital ship, which was to arrive in the area on Wednesday, providing essential capacity for complex surgeries. At least one Latin American leader, Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez, a fiery critic of what he calls US "imperialism," has already accused Washington of "occupying" Haiti under the pretext of an aid operation.
Haitian President Rene Preval has said US troops will help UN peacekeepers keep order in Port-au-Prince. In a bid to speed the arrival of aid and stem looting and violence, the UN Security Council has unanimously agreed to temporarily add 2,000 UN troops and 1,500 police to the 9,000-member peacekeeping mission in Haiti.
The World Food Program, which has fed 200,000 quake victims, aims to move the equivalent of 10 million ready-to-eat meals within the next week, the United Nations said. An additional 130,000 have been fed by other relief groups. Soldiers also spread out to ravaged towns outside the capital, to Leogane to the west and Jacmel on the southern coast, to guard and supply aid distribution there.
In Leogane, the epicenter of the violent quake, the lack of advanced medical facilities prevented many severely injured from getting life-saving surgeries. The humanitarian organisation said drugs for surgical care and equipment like dialysis machines were urgently needed.
Haitian officials say the death toll from the quake was likely to be between 100,000 and 200,000, and that 75,000 bodies had already been buried in mass graves. The World Health Organisation said at least 13 hospitals were working in the Port-au-Prince area and it was bringing in medical supplies to treat 120,000 people over the next month.
Some 90 people have been pulled alive from the rubble by 52 rescue teams from around the world and untold numbers of others by Haitians digging through collapsed buildings. Racing against time, they hope for a repeat miracle like that of an elderly woman pulled on Tuesday from rubble around National Cathedral.
UN relief officials said thousands of survivors were heeding the government's plea that they move in with friends and family in safer areas outside the earthquake zone. One sign of the return to normality was the emergence of street vendors selling fruit, vegetables and charcoal, though supplies of staples were scarce and costly. Although damaged local banks had not reopened, the United Nations said there were plans for them to open 30 to 40 distribution points so people could access their accounts.